PROJECT SUMMARY ? CORE A The Administrative and Biostatistics Core (referred to as Core A). Core A has two interrelated components: Administrative and Biostatistics, which serve to advance the missions of the P01 that are not able to be served by other entities. The overriding objectives or Specific Aims of the Administrative component, under the direction of Dr. Anil Rustgi (also overall Director of Core A), is to coordinate an integrated research program between the Projects and with strong support from the scientific Cores. This Administrative component also facilitates interactions with Penn's Perelman's School of Medicine, its NCI designated Abramson Cancer Center, external institutions, enrichment programs, career development pathways, catalyzes new directions for our P01, and ensures that the P01 has the unequivocal and wholehearted institutional support. The Biostatistics component, under the direction of Dr. Qi Long, Professor of Biostatistics, is located in the Penn Center for Clinical Epidemiology and Biostatistics (CCEB). Its objectives or Specific Aims are to provide comprehensive support for the Projects in experimental design, statistical modeling/analysis, data interpretation and methodological investigations. In aggregate, this Core enables innovative basic science research with translation of robust preclinical models into new perspectives in therapeutics of esophageal cancer, which is a major gap in the field.